Luthor Mansion (Earth 1)
The Luthor Mansion was the main estate of the Luthor family. It was Lex Luthor's primary residence after he moved to Smallville in October 2001. After Lex went missing in mid 2008, he selected Tess Mercer as his caretaker CEO to watch over his estate until he returned. But when she found out his true intentions, she declared him dead. After Lex died, Tess Mercer controlled the Luthor Mansion. She was temporarily held captive in the mansion by Major Zod and his army. Later, Lionel came from Earth 2 using a mirror box, and took over the mansion. The mansion was destroyed by a fire caused by Alexander. Physical Appearance ;Exterior As the only castle in Lowell County, the Luthor Mansion lies near the outskirts of Smallville in a heavily wooded area, affording Lex absolute seclusion. Constructed primarily of sandstone, the castle was transported across the Atlantic from Scotland to its present site in Smallville in 1989, where it was painstakingly reconstructed stone by stone. The approach to the Luthor Mansion is along a tree-lined private road. The west facing garden entrance to the dwelling includes two stone posts with wrought-iron gates, accompanying two white marble Grecian statues, and inside the fencing, two terraces complete with potted urns and stone balustrades. The residence itself is of the Scottish medieval baronial style and is faced with stonework and growing ivy. The surrounding lawns are large enough to safely land Lionel Luthor's helicopter away from the mansion: allowing for quick flights to Metropolis and elsewhere. The grounds include exquisite sculpture gardens, towering shade trees, an outdoor swimming pool, and a greenhouse. By the way of a cleverly concealed button on Lex's office fireplace, a secret passage - beginning from inside the mansion - leads to a series of tunnels located beneath the grounds to the property's edge. According to Lana Lang, Lex had the tunnels constructed in case of another home invasion. ;Interior A locked room on the third story in the east wing of the mansion housed Lex's "obsession": computer screens with a rotating CGI image of the octagonal key, wall paintings and murals from the Kawatche caves, Roger Nixon's computer simulation of Lex's porsche hitting Clark Kent on Loeb Bridge, an enlarged photograph of Clark's face, a family photograph of the Kent family, an enlarged copy of Clark's family tree that he transliterated with Kryptonian symbols, a large meteor fragment containing green and red kryptonite and a glass-encased carcass of a Kryptonian parasite extracted from the Katwatche caves. The main residence is 200 feet long and 86 feet wide with an 82-foot high turret. The Luthor ancestral home boasts a library, an armory with medieval weaponry, an exercise room, several servants' quarters, a wine cellar, a full basement storey about two full stories high, a grand ballroom, a formal dining room, and a natatorium. The interior of the mansion is adorned with priceless art pieces, paintings, and ancient artifacts collected from around the world. Many of the rooms have oak and rosewood panels on the walls and teak floors, along with antiques and tapestries. The most visited chamber is Lex Luthor's office and library, which is located in the spacious uppermost habitable storey of the turret. This room received major renovations in the weeks following the Great Tornado of May 21, 2002. The office is furnished with a glass table-top desk and revolving chair, a credenza that seats a sizeable bust of a military-adorned Augustus Caesar, lounge furniture situated by the fireplace, a tall glass-top bar to which alcoholic beverages are served from, ferns and plants grown in large plant boxes, tall porcelain floor vases, and a billiard pool table: which is often interchanged with a grand piano. The chamber itself features an ornate sandstone fireplace the full height of the room, marble tile and parquet flooring, a square-shaped skylight in the direct center of the ceiling, built-in bookcases, sconce light fixtures and numerous stained glass windows complete with different colored panes. Lex's desk sits in front of a large stained-glass panel featuring the Luthor family heraldry and further up the panel, a capital "L" in the Old English typeface: the entire window, which faces west, is brilliantly illuminated by natural light. The entire office is made of smooth stone with the lower half of the walls covered in wood paneling. The room possesses three side entrances, a double-door main entrance, and a door leading to the small-in-width outdoor promenade balcony. Directly above the double-door main entry is a mezzanine level accessible with a twelve-step staircase leading to a balconied study crowned with a long skylight. The mezzanine study also has a door to a flight of stairs leading to the turret's rooftop. The office is surrounded on three sides by hallways: one side hallway only leads back to the front while the other, reachable by one of two doors, is a long L-shaped corridor with many doors leading to other rooms. This corridor turns north and eventually ends with a bedchamber on the left side which faces the grounds on two sides and the turret on the remaining side. This bedchamber was once used by Lana Lang before she married Lex. Tess used the bedchamber during her residency at the mansion and had a large vault place behind one of the walls. One security feature for the mansion is a highly sophisticated panic room located discreetly behind Lex's principal bookcase. Cameras strategically placed about the residence and the grounds, give many views of the property securely from within the panic room. Surveillance, including unethical surveillance, is one of many of Lex's idiosyncratic methods for obtaining information. Lex's office and other rooms possess many vaults and safes. One vault that once housed Lex's most treausred collection of artifacts - undoubtably obtained on many global treks - was situated behind his bookcase. The bookcase vault was reconfigured in order to make way for his safe room / panic room. A new safe is concealed behind a framed picture in the hallway directly across from the side entrance nearest the piano. When Tess took over LuthorCorp and began inhabiting the mansion, the vault she installed in her bedchamber was used to securely store the Kryptonian Orb. Appearances Known Residents ;Owners * Lex Luthor * Lionel Luthor (Original owner. Gave the mansion to Lex when he moved to Smallville) * Tess Mercer * Lucas Luthor - (Brief) * Helen Bryce - (Brief while Lex was missing) ;Former Residents * Lex Luthor lived in the mansion when he moved to Smallville in 2001 and until he disappeared in season 7. * Lionel Luthor moved in a couple of weeks when he was blind and again after his release from prison. * Lucas Luthor moved in when Lionel threw Lex out of the Mansion. * Victoria Hardwick moved into the mansion in season 1, until Lex discovered that she was secretly stealing his computer files for her own financial gain. * Desirée Atkins moved into the mansion during her brief marriage to Lex. * Helen Bryce gave up a fellowship to Johns Hopkins after Lex asked her to move into the mansion in season 2. She stayed there until they got married, leaving after her second disappearance. * Lana Lang moved into the mansion after the events of Dark Thursday. She stayed there throughout her relationship and marriage to Lex, leaving only after faking her death with a car bomb. * Kara Kent left the Kent Farm and moved into the mansion in season 7. She was motivated to move after getting amnesia and realizing that both Clark and Lana were hiding something from her. Lana and Chloe broke into the mansion and rescued Kara from having surgery performed upon her. * Major Zod and his army stayed there for several weeks after being released from the Orb until they left suddenly. *Tess Mercer moved into the mansion in after Lex disappeared in Arctic. She moved back in after she came back to life. *The Lionel Luthor of Earth 2 temporarily owned and lived in the building after taking back LuthorCorp from Tess and Oliver Queen. He only had it for a couple of days before Alexander burned it down. *Alexander Luthor, a young clone of Lex Luthor and Clark Kent, was brought to live with Tess in the Mansion. After a short conflict with her, Alexander moved to Cadmus Labs, where Tess sent him supplies. ;Staff A small but dedicated staff maintains the mansion. Formerly, the Palmer family headed up the household staff and was a fixture until their son Jeff attacked Victoria Hardwick and Lex. Lex had brought the Palmers with him from Metropolis. Notes *The mansion was once a St. Kilda castle that Lionel had transported stone by stone from Scotland to Smallville. *Every main character has been inside the Luthor Mansion at least once. *Like the Kent Farm and the Talon, The Luthor Mansion appeared in all the ten seasons of the series, appearing in 179 episodes total. Trivia * The castle is also known to fans of another superhero series: the X-Men films were partially filmed at Hatley Castle when it was used as the setting for Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. * The interiors are filmed on set. * This castle is the same one used to film the exteriors of the DC Comics live action series 'Arrow'. It's where Oliver Queen (Green Arrow) and his family resided in seasons 1 and 2. * The location is the same had used like Fair Haven in the THE WITCHES OF EAST END Series. See also * Luthor Mansion Security Breaches Category:Locations Category:Earth 1 Locations Category:Smallville Locations